Toll agency lawyer disbarred


Link to article here.

Nielson is a prime example of the revolving door syndrome that dominates transportation/toll issues. He's not unlike former State Rep. Mike Krusee who nows lobbies his ex-colleagues for big bucks. These guys just get recycled from one job to the next, using their connections from elected office to exploit taxpayers...

Toll road agency lawyer resigns after bar suspension
Tom Nielson served on Round Rock City Council for six years before joining Central Texas Mobility Authority as general counsel in 2006
 By Ben Wear AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Monday, Feb. 8, 2010

Tom Nielson, a former Round Rock City Council member and general counsel of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority since 2006, quietly left the toll road agency several weeks ago after the State Bar of Texas suspended his law license.

The five-year suspension of Nielson's right to practice law, for "professional misconduct," grows out of a 2000 land deal that went awry several years before he became the toll authority's lawyer, according to a six-page suspension judgment by the bar. Nielson, according to the judgment, falsely claimed to have put $25,000 in a trust account and gave a "false document" to a partner in the deal purporting to show that the money had been deposited with a title company.

Nielson, 49, who officially left his $164,388-a-year position at the toll authority Jan. 15 after his license was suspended Jan. 1, said that although there was a "discrepancy" involving a document, "I still contend there was no issue with it." The charges confirmed in the Dec. 28 judgment were of the "he-said-she-said" variety, Nielson said.

"Hey, I've lost my career," Nielson said. "But I'm not a bad guy. It's not like I made off with millions."


Instead, Nielson said that he and Byron "Dick" Wilson, of Hutto, were "squeezed out" of the sale of land on U.S. 183 near Anderson Mill Road, well south of where the mobility authority would later build the 183-A toll road. Then Wilson sued in 2006, and Nielson said he paid about $50,000 in a settlement in which he didn't admit guilt.

He also must pay the State Bar almost $6,000 in attorney fees.

Wilson, who in August 2008 filed the grievance with the State Bar that led to the license suspension, could not be reached for comment.

Mobility authority Executive Director Mike Heiligenstein, whose friendship with Nielson goes back two decades to when their children played youth sports together, said he knew nothing about the disputed land deal between Nielson and Wilson.

"It was never brought up during his employment, or before that during the interview process," Heiligenstein said. "He obviously thought it had been worked out."

Nielson told Heiligenstein in mid-December about the bar complaint and that he was resigning, Heiligenstein said. Nielson's picture and his position with the agency were still posted on the agency's Web site Monday afternoon. Agency spokesman Steve Pustelnyk , alerted to this, had the post removed later in the day.

Nielson, who graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 1986, according to the bar, served on the Round Rock City Council from 1999 to 2005. He became general counsel for the mobility authority several months later, in effect replacing private attorney Brian Cassidy, who had been doing legal work for the agency on a contract basis almost since its creation in 2002.

Cassidy, who had continued to provide some services for the authority, including lobbying at the Capitol, was back in the counsel's chair when the mobility authority board of directors met Jan. 27.

The bar decision said that Nielson, representing a landowner, in late 2000 had approached another person, identified in the original grievance as Wilson. Nielson and Wilson, anticipating a $100,000 profit on what Nielson described Monday as a "land flip," agreed that Wilson would put up $25,000 "earnest money." Two years later, according to the judgment, the partner questioned Nielson about when they would see the profits. Only at that point, the document says, did Nielson reveal that the deal had soured and returned the $25,000.

It was unclear Monday whether that $25,000 was a part of the $50,000 settlement of the lawsuit.

Heiligenstein is interviewing candidates for general counsel, he said Monday.

More pork with gas taxes, this time for “Office of livable communities”

Link to article here. This publication is geared for truckers, but it reveals $500 million in further diversions of our gas taxes that have nothing to do with transportation.

Highway tax dollars for ‘livable communities’
Landline Magazine
February 2, 2010

What exactly are “livable communities,” and how much do they cost? If you’re a highway user, you could begin paying soon for livable communities even if it’s not clear where the money would go.

The Obama administration is proposing to create a new Office of Livable Communities and fund it with $500 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The administration included the concept as part of a $3.8 trillion federal budget request issued Monday, Feb. 1. The budget request includes $78.8 billion for the U.S. Department of Transportation of which $500 million would be used to fund and staff the new office.

Truckers who operate just 4 percent of the registered vehicles on the roadways – but who pay a 36 percent share of the bill for highways and transportation through taxes and fees – deserve to know where the money for “livable communities” will go, OOIDA leadership says.

“We certainly have some concern with it because we believe there could be a serious diversion of highway user dollars to these so-called livable communities and this Office of Livable Communities,” OOIDA Director of Legislative Affairs Mike Joyce told Land Line Now on Sirius XM.

“We’re not sure what the benefits truly will be for America’s highway users and America’s truckers.”

Without a clear intention for the money, the government is leaving no choice but for the highway user to be skeptical, Joyce says.

“I don’t think anybody at DOT or from the Congress has clearly defined what livable communities are,” Joyce said.

“The fear is that there is no definition, that there are no true parameters to what livable communities are and how money can be spent on livable communities. … And so it ends up at the discretion of the secretary of transportation and the folks that are running that office as to how they want to spend that money. That’s a very serious concern.”

Breaking: TxDOT admits Trans Texas Corridor ALIVE, despite claim it’s DEAD

On February 1, 2010, in a Joint Senate and House Transportation Committee hearing, Senator John Carona directly asked TxDOT Executive Director Amadeo Saenz if TxDOT decided tomorrow that it wants to build the Trans Texas Corridor after all, does it still have the statutory authority to do so? Saenz answered: "Yes."

See for yourself below...

Obama wants to yank Hutchison ban on tolling existing roads

Link to article here. So much for the pro-toll policies of Bush being set aside by a new Administration...doesn't matter who holds office, the BIG MONEY is in charge and they want you to pay dearly to get to work, even to use freeways already built and paid for.

Texas toll roads: Obama sides against Hutchison in spat with Perry
Mon, Feb 01, 2010 | By Todd J. Gillman
Dallas Morning News

President Barack Obama isn't exactly a player in Texas' Republican primary for governor. But today, he seemed to weigh in on one of the more contentious issues: toll roads in Texas.

The 2011 budget Obama unveiled today calls for repeal of a federal moratorium on the tolling of existing roads in Texas. That puts the president at odds with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison -- though not necessarily on the side of Gov. Rick Perry.

"The Administration would prefer that federal toll policy be addressed nationally as part of the multi-year surface transportation reauthorization legislation," the Federal Highway Administration said in a statement, when asked to explain the budget language.

Hutchison inserted temporary moratoriums into highway appropriations bills in 2007, 2008 and last fall. The latest expires with the current fiscal year, at the end of September. Her point is that is just wouldn't be fair to charge drivers to use a road that was already paid for through taxes or tolls -- the implication being that, left to his own devices, that's what Perry would do.

It's a potent, populist issue for Hutchison -- and a straw man, given that Perry vehemently denies any intention to slap tolls on existing freeway lanes.

"The department has made it clear that we have no interest in tolling existing lanes," Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Chris Lippincott said this afternoon, when told of the Obama budget provision. "Whether we are prohibited from doing so in federal law is irrelevant," he said.

And it wouldn't be easy, even if the state's Transportation Commission didn't have a policy in place that effectively abides by the moratorium. To turn a freeway (or even a single lane of existing roadway) into a toll road, TEXDOT would need a waiver from the Federal Highway Administration. These are granted only rarely. Then, state law requires approval from the county commissioners and then from a county's voters.

"There are significant barriers," Lippincott said.

Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky reiterated the senator's stance, including the insinuation about Perry's intentions: "Taxpayers have already paid for these roads. It is wrong to toll them, taxing Texans a second time. Kay Bailey Hutchison will continue to fight attempts to toll roads already paid for with taxpayer dollars, no matter where those efforts are coming from," he said.

Lawmakers trot out special interests to lobby for tax hikes

Public hearing turned lobbyist feeding frenzy
By Terri Hall
San Antonio Express-News/Houston Examiner
Feb 02, 2010

We've seen it before. But in an election year during an economic downturn, it's breathtaking -- a room stacked with lobbyists and elected officials lobbying for higher taxes. Yesterday's Joint Public Hearing of both the House and Senate Transportation Committees (more news coverage below) to discuss the state of transportation finance was what San Antonio Rep. Ruth McClendon defined as insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. McClendon feels that unless the political aspect of why road funding has not been properly addressed, all the public hearings and testimony won't change the outcome.

Ultimately, Governor Rick Perry has repeatedly threatened a veto of any increase in transportation funding other than his policy of privatized toll roads, and he's managed to successfully starve or squander existing funding enough to accomplish his goal. Perry, David Dewhurst, Tom Craddick and Steve Ogden's desire to raid teacher retirement and public employee pension funds to finance these risky toll road deals fell flat in the Legislature, a sentiment echoed in yesterday's hearing.

Once again, lawmakers tried to make the case that TxDOT is plum out of money and that higher taxes are needed to build more roads, while conservative legislator Rep. Linda Harper-Brown and a handful of conservative watchdog groups pushed back saying there's already tax collected that's not getting to transportation, which needs to be fixed first.

Business interests like the Texas Association of Business and virtually all the urban Chamber of Commerce groups shamelessly advocated private toll roads, and every tax imaginable to go to roads. San Antonio Greater Chamber of Commerce President Richard Perez even asked for a "arterial collection" tax, which is code for tolling surface streets, not just highways. These hogs at the trough want no tax left "un-levied" to exploit the powers of government taxation and forcibly empty our pockets to fill theirs. They want it all -- from a hike in vehicle registration fees and vehicle sales tax to property tax, sales tax, and basically taxes on anything that moves.

Lawmakers again had a hard time discerning the true funding "needs" due to TxDOT persistently including projects not on the state highway system in its "funding gap" figures that started at $86 billion in 2006 (then was revised downward by $30 BILLION after the State Auditor found TxDOT had bloated that figure) and is now up to $387 billion. TURF also obtained sworn testimony from a former employee of the State Auditor that Perry's Transportation Commission directed the agency to gin-up its 2006 funding gap so that it appeared insurmountable under the gas tax system (so it could push private toll roads as the solution to funding shortfalls). Distrust of TxDOT is the elephant in the room few lawmakers seemed prepared to address.

Americans for Prosperity and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, two of only three watchdog groups to testify (Eagle Forum didn't show and Texas Public Policy Foundation was invited but declined) compared with 31 invited witnesses in favor of higher taxes without accountability, emphasized prioritizing existing funding first, like ending diversions of gas taxes revenues away from transportation, and cleaning up a broken TxDOT that continues to illegally use taxpayers money on lobbying for more privatized toll roads.

Defending the indefensible
Though the Texas Conservative Coalition echoed many of the same sentiments, its Director, John Colyandro, was taken to task by Chairman Senator John Carona for advocating the most expensive road tax while rejecting a more affordable gas tax increase. "How is that conservative?" asked Carona.

While Colyandro stopped short of endorsing Rick Perry's position of having all new capacity being toll lanes handed over to foreign corporations that charge 75 cents PER MILE to use public roads, he did advocate that private toll roads have a legitimate role as part of a mix of both toll and non-toll roads.

Earlier in the hearing, Carona laid down the gauntlet asking, "I'm looking for someone to come and defend to me that a privately built toll road is less expensive than a free road 'cause it just ain't so." While Colyandro and many of the lobbyists and local politicians asked for the moratorium on private toll roads be lifted and remain "one of the tools in the tool box," none could defend how that funding "option" was more affordable than a gas tax increase. Because it isn't. It's rather telling when even a so-called anti-tax advocate lobbies for the most expensive road funding option, but outright rejects the most affordable one.

TxDOT admits Trans Texas Corridor still alive & well
Considering all the campaign rhetoric from Perry claiming the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) is "dead," his highway department laid it to rest when it admitted on the record that it's still alive and well in the transportation code. The Department still has the legal authority to move forward with it should Perry be re-elected. So once again, all the claims that the TTC is dead, are just plain inaccurate. In fact, one of Perry's appointees to the Transportation Commission, Ned Holmes, asked at a Commission hearing last fall that the TTC-69 private toll contract be expedited. Two other pending TTC corridors, La Entrada de Pacifico and Ports to Plains are also actively being pursued.

Private toll roads cost more than public
As part of the discussion on private versus public toll roads, several lawmakers queried TxDOT staff and Commission Chairwoman as to why public agencies can't go to the bond market and fund these toll roads the same as a private operator can and even more cheaply since they can access tax-exempt bonds and don't need to make a profit. The answer is it can stay in the public's hands more affordably.

Though Transportation Commission Chairwoman Deirdre Delisi tried to say the private operators can tap money the taxpayers can't, it's totally false. In fact, it's the other way around. The private sector is exploiting the tax-exempt capital backed by taxpayers (like federally backed TIFIA loans and Private Activity Bonds, PABs, as well as other sources of taxpayer revenue like gas taxes to subsidize toll projects) in addition to its access to the private bond market, which charges higher interest rates resulting in higher toll rates.

If a potential road is toll viable, the public toll entity can go to Wall Street and get private investors to fund the project using toll revenue bonds based on traffic forecasts. The private investors, not the taxpayer, are on the hook if the traffic fails to show-up to cover the debt. No public money has to be tapped when building a toll viable road.

Delisi seemed clueless as to what a toll viable road even was or how one is funded, looking to TxDOT staff to bailout her out of answering the question. That's because TxDOT hasn't built any toll viable roads since she became Chair. Delisi also claimed there were no guarantees (where the taxpayers bailout the private entities) that the private operators would make a profit, yet an article in today's Bond Buyer confirms there are.

Financial death spiral
Under Perry, rather than scrap toll projects that won't pay for themselves, he's buried the taxpayers in massive amounts of new debt to SUBSIDIZE losing toll projects, socializing the losses and privatizing the profits. Pre-Perry, there was ZERO debt for roads. On Perry's watch, $12 billion in debt has been amassed, not counting the off-budget debt local toll entities have had to incur to pick-up the slack for the State's failure to properly fund STATE highways (and millions the Governor's office has spent on roads for Colonias).

Much of this money has been leveraged multiple times (using borrowed money as collateral to borrow more money, and often several times over), the same reckless financial methods that got us into the mortgage crisis and bailout era. If we continue down this road, debt service payments will likely eat-up our existing gas taxes at a faster pace than inflation, fuel efficiency, and diversions COMBINED!

Though there's some room to borrow more money for roads, the Texas Bond Review Board Executive Director warned, there's not much available. Many of the State's bond ratings have already dropped from AAA to AA+. Perry has basically maxed out the State's credit card in just 5 years!

Carona closed the hearing saying the committees planned to reach out to taxpayer groups next time around to try and reach consensus so that road funding issues get solved and not stonewalled for another session. From our perspective, more funding is a non-starter until they end gas tax diversions and audit and clean house at TxDOT, holding them accountable for the years of wrongdoing.

Be sure to read TURF's oral testimony and written testimony.
___________________________________________________________

Link to article here.

North Texans revive push for local-option transportation funding bill
Posted Monday, Feb. 01, 2010

By DAVE MONTGOMERY
Star-Telegram

AUSTIN -- Undaunted by failure in the last two legislative sessions, North Texas leaders are organizing another push behind a local-option transportation bill that would authorize local elections to finance millions of dollars in road and rail projects.

Officials from Fort Worth, Dallas and Arlington signaled their intentions at a joint hearing before the state House and Senate transportation committees Monday, saying that congestion and pollution have only worsened since a similar bill died in the closing days of the 2009 Legislature.

"We in North Texas are facing nothing less than a mobility crisis," said Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief. "North Texas needs your help. The people of Fort Worth need your help."

The legislative initiative being prepared for the 2011 Legislature would allow county or regional elections in which voters would choose from a menu of funding options, such as an increase in gasoline taxes or auto registration fees, Fort Worth Councilman Jungus Jordan said in outlining the plan after the hearing.

Jordan said proponents are tailoring the local-option feature for use in any region and plan to mount a statewide push on behalf of the bill.

In another key difference from the previous campaign, Jordan said, proponent cities will rely on help from business groups instead of tax-financed city funds to pay for lobbying efforts for the bill.

The measure is similar in concept to the 2009 bill, which Gov. Rick Perry and vocal conservative groups denounced as a tax increase. But Jordan said supporters will stress that urban residents are already paying millions of dollars in "hidden taxes," such as lost productivity and increased business costs, because of traffic congestion.

Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck, a physician, told lawmakers that proponents will also cite the public-health benefits of reducing traffic. He pointed out that pollution in the Metroplex carries the same consequences as smoking and exacerbates pulmonary illnesses.

"As we get more and more cars off the street, the amount of asthma that we see will go down dramatically," he said.

More than two dozen suburban communities joined with Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington in the unsuccessful effort to pass the 2009 measure, called the Texas Local Option Transportation Act. The larger municipalities also hired one of Austin's premier lobbying firms, HillCo Partners, to help push the bill.

"We didn't stop after the last session," Jordan said.

Planners are still working out details but hope to have a draft within 30 to 60 days. North Texas leaders will also hold discussions with their counterparts in San Antonio, Houston, Austin, Lubbock, Corpus Christi, El Paso and smaller urban areas to form a statewide coalition, Jordan said.

Metroplex leaders, he said, still have the same priorities as in 2009: finding money for up to 250 miles of commuter rail and expansion of the now overburdened road and highway network.

"The unparalleled quality of life that we've built is severely threatened by our congested highways and roadways," Moncrief told the lawmakers, saying that "many if not most" of North Texas residents are "fed up" with being stuck in traffic.

"They deserve answers," he said. "Not next month. Not next year. Now."

The daylong hearing by the House Transportation Committee and the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security was called to explore funding options to help the state avert a looming transportation crisis.

Some lawmakers are touting an increase in the gasoline tax, which hasn't been changed since 1991.

Deirdre Delisi, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, declined to take a position on the proposal but said the state needs financial stability to address "serious transportation challenges" over the next two decades.

The state will run out of money for new transportation projects by 2012. A panel of Texas business and civic leaders appointed by the commission says the state needs to invest at least $315 billion through 2030 to maintain roadways, combat urban traffic congestion, and increase mobility and safety.

_________________________________________________________________

Link to article here.

Money for roads sought

State could look at fuel tax hike
By Gustavo Reveles Acosta / El Paso Times
Posted: 02/02/2010 12:00:00 AM MST

EL PASO -- State legislators on Monday began what will be a long and difficult process to create new revenue streams for highway construction in Texas.

Money to relieve the congested freeways in the state has dried up and lawmakers have been left with the task of coming up with billions of dollars to relieve traffic tie-ups.

The members of the Texas House and Senate transportation committee had a joint meeting in Austin to discuss how the state will come up with additional revenue to help build new roads starting in 2012.

Both committees heard from mayors -- including El Paso Mayor John Cook -- transportation officials, lobbyists and business leaders during a meeting that began at 7 a.m. El Paso time and lasted until well past 4 p.m.

Although no official plan was discussed, most of the conversation revolved around a proposed hike in the state's fuel tax, which has been stagnant at 20 cents per gallon since 1991.

"Yes, that's on everyone's mind, but the reality is that it won't be easy to sell a gas tax increase to the public," said state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, the chairman of the House's transportation committee. "Just think about the sound bite on television. As soon as you hear increase, your mind is going to be turned off by it."

Pickett's committee, along with its counterpart in the Senate, began pitching a hike -- or at least a retooling -- of the fuel tax since last fall.

According to figures from the Texas Department of Transportation, the state could be $250 billion behind in highway construction by 2050, when the population of the state will reach 50 million.

"By January 2012, TxDOT will be dead-flat broke and without new revenues to build new roads. That's a big issue," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, a member of the Senate's transportation committee.

Shapleigh said the state should not only increase the fuel tax but also alter it to make sure fuel-efficient vehicles pay their fair share in taxes for new highways.

Gov. Rick Perry, though, has said he will veto any bill that asks for an increase in fuel tax.

"Both Perry and (Lt. Gov. David) Dewhurst have seceded from reality and they're doing nothing to fix the problem," Shapleigh said.

Members of both committees conceded Monday that fixing TxDOT's budget shortfall would require innovative legislation and changes to long-standing fee structures.

Some of the proposed changes include increasing vehicle registration fees, pushing cities and counties to use the Transportation Increment Refinancing Zone funding mechanism, and forcing TxDOT to become more efficient.

Officials also discussed creating a local option that would allow municipalities and counties to create local fuel taxes to help build local roads.

Legislators said the state needs to be more in tune with the U.S. Department of Transportation to secure as much federal funding as possible.

"Whatever happens, I hope all these tools that have been discussed are kept on the toolshed for us to use," said Cook. "El Paso has taken advantage of many of these tools and we are doing well because of it."

Many El Paso commuters, though, said they wouldn't like to see an increase in fuel taxes, especially because gas prices have skyrocketed in the last five years.

"Look at me. I'm almost paying $3 a gallon here. And now they want me to pay more? That's awful," said Susan Robert, who was fueling her car at a Central convenience store on Monday. "I think we have enough roads for right now. Don't raise my taxes."

Pickett said he is concerned that the recent boom in highway construction -- about $1 billion worth has been approved -- in El Paso could make people think TxDOT is in good shape and that a fuel tax increase is not needed.

"El Paso is in good shape for the next four or five years, and I say that with hesitation because I know that we have done things right here and things have played in our favor," he said. "But we are talking about the future and our list of projects is long."

Pickett added, "Finding a solution to the transportation funding problem is going to be one of the most difficult things to get through the Legislature in the next session ... but I guess I already knew that."

__________________________________________________________________


Web Posted: 02/01/2010 6:18 CST

Legislators debate road funding

By Josh Baugh - Express-News

AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers on Monday hammered home that without a new funding method, the Texas Department of Transportation will be unable to build any new roads beyond 2012 and will not have enough money to properly maintain existing roads within two to three years.

They also demonstrated that finding a new funding solution they can agree on won't be easy.

Legislators on the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security and the House Committee on Transportation grappled with the use of “public-private partnerships” and comprehensive development agreements, or CDAs, that in some cases privatize toll roads.

Senate Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, chastised language often associated with toll roads, that drivers can “choose” to use them. Carona said it's “disingenuous” to say drivers will have an option if the only way to fund new-road construction is by tolling them.

“If every new road going forward is a toll road, that's no choice,” he said.

Looking into other potential sources of dollars, Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, asked Texas Transportation Commission Chairwoman Deirdre Delisi whether her board, appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to oversee TxDOT, supported an increase in the gas tax, something Perry has said he opposes. Delisi said it's not the commission's role to determine how much the gas tax should be increased, that's the Legislature's job.

Increasing the gas tax has been a political hot potato, but it's an issue that's gaining traction among lawmakers. It's unclear, however, what chance it will stand during the 2011 legislative session.

Read the rest of the story here.

TxDOT lied: private toll operators guaranteed profit on taxpayers' dime

We heard explicitly in testimony at yesterday's Joint Public Hearing of the House and Senate Transportation Committees that with regards to private toll road contracts, TxDOT stated that the private operator was taking all the risk, not the taxpayers. Well, the Bond Buyer reports differently (below). How is this a transfer of risk when Cintra is guaranteed profits if toll traffic dips below a certain minimum?

The article states:

"The developer is guaranteed a set reimbursement, creating an element of risk for TxDOT if use of a tollway falls below projections."

Also, how is their access to capital better than the public's when they're using federally-backed TIFIA loans and PABs that are tax-exempt just like public sector toll projects?

"They (Cintra) will borrow about $500 million from private lenders and seek an equal amount in government-backed loans from the Federal Highway Administration."

We now know the answer to these questions. See why the public doesn't trust a word out of the mouths of TxDOT?

Texas Officials Seek a New Path To Private Transportation Funding
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
By Richard Williamson
The Bond Buyer

DALLAS — With a statewide moratorium on new private toll projects still in place after more than two years, the Texas Transportation Commission is planning a bypass around that financial barrier to leverage existing funds.

While the financial constraints exist statewide, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex serves as the incubator in terms of innovative public-private finance, say Texas ­Department of Transportation officials.

“This is, in my view, the premier national laboratory for transportation projects,” said TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott. “There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on.”

The latest scheme — one that will require rule changes and exhaustive risk analysis from department staff — would allow a private developer to design, finance and rebuild a 28-mile section of Interstate 35-East from Dallas northward to Denton in exchange for reimbursement from TxDOT.

The finance method, known as pass-through tolling, is relatively new but well established with local governments, particularly counties. The system has never been used with a private developer, according to TxDOT. Nevertheless, current law allows the use of pass-through tolling by private companies.

Read the rest of the story here.

Toll roads front and center in gubernatorial debate

Vote for who YOU think won the debate in our online poll on the bottom right side of our home page.

The debate over toll roads took a front row seat in last night's final Republican gubernatorial debate. The lead question to start the debate, posed by reporter Wayne Slater, asked candidates Kay Bailey Hutchison, Debra Medina, and Rick Perry what they feel is the best way to fund roads: more debt, raise the gas tax, or more toll roads.

While no candidate came out and said they'd raise the gas tax, both Hutchison and Medina said an audit and total house cleaning at TxDOT was in order before any new money would be considered. Both challengers rejected Perry's version of reliance on strictly toll roads to build infrastructure. Hutchison emphasized no tolls on existing freeways (touting her amendment to two appropriations bills that forbids tolling existing interstates, though it has a loophole for "managed" toll lanes added to the middle of existing paid-for right of way), and no gas tax increases without a public election (which seems to indicate support for the local option gas tax being pushed by officials in urban areas).

Medina stated the need for greater transparency at TxDOT to identify the waste, and she emphasized state sovereignty, saying no gas tax should leave the state to get pilfered in Washington. Perry stubbornly clung to his failed policy of privatized, foreign-owned toll roads using sweetheart deals that grant monopolies to the private operators (which result in toll rates of 75 cents PER MILE to access public roads).

Perry's "YOU LIE!" moment

Perry's greatest fib of the day was his insistence that the Texas legislature passed a bill in 2005 prohibiting the conversion of free lanes to toll lanes. However, the truth is, the bill, HB 2702, tells precisely how TxDOT can LEGALLY convert existing highway lanes into toll lanes by simply downgrading the free lanes to access roads. The bill also contains other gaping loopholes that allow the Transportation Commission (all appointed by Perry) to override the "prohibition" if it determines the toll lanes "improve mobility in the region" as well as grandfather clause that exempts virtually all the toll projects currently on the table. Perry's elitist "you can eat cake" attitude is: if you can't afford the toll lanes, you can sit in congestion on the stop-light ridden access roads. The fight to stop the conversion of all existing FREEway lanes on US 281 (and 16 miles of Loop 1604) into a tollway has languished precisely because of the loopholes in HB 2702.

Challengers: Perry's sweetheart deals must go

Later, Hutchison emphasized Perry's approach to building roads grants sweetheart deals designed to protect the interests of the private operators, not of the traveling public, by limiting the potential "competition" of surrounding free roads. In her closing, Hutchison decried Perry's cronyism relating to the toll deals, where lobbyists, not Texans, get their interests represented. Medina closed by lumping Hutchison into the mix saying "both want to sell Texas to the highest bidder" (an illusion to Hutchison's support of private toll roads, though Hutchison stops short of foreign ownership and wants certain public protections in the contracts).

It's interesting to note, only Medina actually asked for Texans' vote on March 2. She also noted the career politicians tout big name endorsements, but Medina emphasized, as she looked right into the camera at the millions of viewers, "the only endorsement I care about is yours."

Local toll agency to use State’s credit to back $8 billion in toll roads

NEW UPDATE:

Texas DOT Gets $3 Billion Nod,Gears Up for Market
Financial Times
January 29, 2010; Updated: February 5th, 2010

In separate meetings yesterday, the Texas Transportation Commission and the State Bond Review Board authorized TxDOT to develop a preliminary official statement and take other steps needed to issue the debt.

TxDOT has not hired underwriters for the deal, which is expected to come in March or April, according to spokeswoman Kelli Petras.

Known as Proposition 12 bonds for the proposal authorized by Texas voters in 2007, the debt is designed to help the state catch up with its growing transportation infrastructure needs.

TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz said the TTC has already estimated that the state will need $332 billion more than is envisioned over the next 20 years to keep up with transportation needs.

As those needs grow, fuel tax revenues are falling and are currently 2% below projections made in 2009. Despite the need for more revenue, neither Gov. Rick Perry nor his Republican primary challenger Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison are likely to call for a tax increase in an election year.

Without additional tax revenue, the state's transportation planners have turned increasingly to toll roads, particularly in the North Texas area, where at least four major projects are underway or in the planning stages.

The North Texas Tollway Authority is preparing to take over construction and management of State Highway 161 in western Dallas County if it can do so without endangering its credit ratings of A-minus from Standard & Poor's and A2 from Moody's Investors Service.

At yesterday's TTC meeting, commissioners voted to continue negotiating a deal with the NTTA over plans to guarantee its debt for the $1 billion tollway, which is already nearly three-fourths complete. To acquire the project, the toll authority would pay the Regional Transportation Council of North Texas $458 million for the completed sections, while investing $610 million for the completion of Phase 4. The NTTA would then operate the tollway and apply revenues to its bond debt.

To avoid straining revenues on its existing toll system, the authority would finance SH 161 separately.

Under the proposed plan, TxDOT would guarantee debt service on the SH 161 bonds so that if revenues fell short, the state would step in to make the debt payments.

With yesterday's agreement to continue negotiations, the NTTA gains more time to work out a deal that would reduce its risks.

Link to original source, Bond Buyer, here.
__________________________________________________________________
Link to Star-Telegram article here.

Link to TURF Founder Terri Hall's article about this risky gas tax heist here.

Southwest Parkway and Texas 161 toll road projects
clear big hurdle

 
Posted Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010

By GORDON DICKSON
Ft. Worth Star Telegram

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AUSTIN — A deal approved Thursday all but assures that the proposed Southwest Parkway toll road in Fort Worth will be under construction later this year.

The Texas Transportation Commission agreed to use the state’s gas taxes as collateral on two projects being developed jointly — Southwest Parkway and Texas 161 in Grand Prairie — even though those projects are toll roads.

The move, approved Thursday morning by a voice vote, could tie up highway funds normally used on nontoll projects for years. Nonetheless, it strongly improves the chances that the first eight miles of Southwest Parkway, from Interstate 30 near downtown Fort Worth to Dirks Road on the city’s southwest side, will be under construction by the end of the year and open by mid-2013.

Officials from the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Texas Tollway Authority agreed that the two roads would be developed together and would share revenue until each was paid for.

"I believe there is less risk doing the projects together than doing the projects separately," said state Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, who spoke to the commission along with state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth.

Still, Thursday’s action was a preliminary step. Over the next 30 days, both sides must hammer out specific legal language to make the agreement stick.

Key question

A crucial question is whether the agreement can be structured to pass muster with bondholders, who may not approve of combining finances for the two projects and may insist that their investments be restricted to one road or the other.

The Transportation Department also wants an assurance in the contract that the tollway authority will release the state’s gas tax fund — Fund 6 — as collateral as early as possible.

Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston expressed doubt that the two sides could agree on language that satisfies that concern by Feb. 28, the tollway authority’s deadline for deciding once and for all whether to take over the Texas 161 project.

Texas 161 runs parallel to Texas 360 in Arlington and is expected to be a main path to Cowboys Stadium, especially for fans coming from north Dallas.

"I don’t know how you’ll be able to do that in the next 30 days," Holmes said. "It’s been going on for some time now."

Still, with the state’s highway fund as a backstop, the North Texas Tollway Authority expects to get a much higher credit rating on the bond market. As a result, it will enjoy a better interest rate — and will raise about $400 million more for the project through bond sales than would have otherwise been possible.

Despite that infusion of $400 million, there is still a $300 million funding gap between the estimated cost of the projects and the amount of revenue the tollway authority can raise.

Funding gap

The long-term risk for Texas taxpayers is that if either toll road project struggles financially at any time during the next four decades, the state may have to dip into its gas tax reserves to help the tollway authority pay its debts.

The arrangement — a toll equity loan — could tie up millions of dollars a year in highway funds that otherwise would be spent on nontoll projects.

Transportation commissioners originally opposed taking that risk but ultimately decided to go along with it. The alternative, they noted, was to not build Southwest Parkway.

In recent years, lawmakers have severely restricted the Transportation Department’s ability to build its own toll projects — especially if private developers were involved. In Dallas-Fort Worth, the tollway authority, which is a public agency, has first dibs on any project, according to state law.

"The tools that have been taken away from this agency need to be returned so we can be creative in our delivery," said Deirdre Delisi of Austin, the Transportation Commission chairwoman. "There’s only so much capacity we have. It ties our hands for future projects."

Meanwhile, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s official planning body, is searching for other funding sources to close the $300 million gap, transportation director Michael Morris said.

One option is securing a federal transportation infrastructure loan, although that’s considered a long shot. Another could be a state infrastructural bank loan, although that source likely wouldn’t be available until September at the earliest.

"We’ve got 30 days to close a $300 million gap," Morris said.

_____________________________________________________________________
Link to article here.

Highway chiefs poised to give NTTA line of credit to ease financing of SH 161, Southwest Parkway
By Michael Lindenbarger
Dallas Morning News
Thu, Jan 28, 2010

It looks likely that the North Texas Tollway Authority will get the credit help it has asked for.

The Texas Transportation Commission will decide this morning whether to give NTTA a line of credit that the toll authority would be able to use in the unlikely event that toll revenues fail to provide enough revenue to cover the billions of dollars in debt it will have to take on to build both SH 161 in Dallas County and Southwest Parkway in Tarrant County.

The line of credit, even if never used by NTTA, will save it hundreds of millions of dollars in financing costs over time, both sides agreed.

In return for extending the credit, TxDOT wil be relieved of obligations to build about $500 million in interchanges and other work related to the Southwest Parkway/Chisholm Trail project.

It's not a done deal yet, but yesterday even the commissions' most hard-core proponent of toll road privatization said he was satisfied that the loan deal is a calculated risk that will bring sufficient value to Texas.

Reached last night in Austin, NTTA board chairman praised TxDOT for what looks like its willingness to move forward with the loans, which he said NTTA is unlikely to ever have to use.

Some commissioners seemed uneasy with the loan arrangement, given that if NTTA should face a disastrous downturn in revenue, the extent of the liability Texas could face is enormous -- however unlikely it might be. The total cost of the two roads will be more than $8 billion.

Michael Morris, transportation director of North Central Texas Council of Governments, which helped negotiate the agreement, said before Texas would be asked to make payments to cover NTTA's loans, the authority would first raise its rates. It could, he and NTTA's executive director said, likely double its rates without losing significant number of customers.

NTTA's board of directors will vote Feb. 26 on whether to finally commit itself to SH 161, triggering an obligation to pay back the state $258 million in construction costs, plus make a $200 million concession payment.

That money will be used on Dallas County projects, Morris has said.

I-35 in Denton to be tolled

Link to article here.

The arrogant condescension of elitist politicians is on display with these comments by Denton County Judge Mary Horn:

"The traveling public will have a choice. For the anti-toll road people, if they feel that strongly about it, well bless their little hearts, there will be free lanes right beside the tolled lanes and they certainly won't have to use the toll lanes."

Yeah, Horn, like Rick Perry, thinks it's perfectly fine for those who cannot afford the toll taxes to be relegated to second class citizens stuck on congested, stop-light ridden access roads.

Also, the story below reveals how TxDOT continues to defy the Legislature and the people of Texas who soundly rejected private toll contracts, called public private partnerships (PPPs or CDAs), in Texas. The Legislature did not not authorize such contracts to continue past August 31, 2009, yet TxDOT is resurrecting such deals using backdoor PPPs called pass through toll agreements. This is an agency run amok! TxDOT must be stopped!

I-35E expansion to be completed in stages

12:00 AM CST on Thursday, January 28, 2010

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER / The Dallas Morning News

Rebuilding Interstate 35E from Dallas to Denton will have to be done in stages, even if Texas contracts with a private toll firm to build and finance most of the work, state transportation officials said Wednesday.

The full project – which would stretch 28 miles and include four rebuilt free lanes and two tolled lanes in each direction – would cost $4.3 billion, Texas Department of Transportation officials said.

Trouble is, the only money Texas has now for the project – or will likely have in the near future – is $592 million set aside from the billions North Texas Tollway Authority paid for the State Highway 121 project, deputy executive director John Barton said.

To stretch that money, Barton said, the department is considering seeking private partners to help build a 12-mile segment of the road. The scaled-down project would also begin with just three free lanes in each direction plus the tolled lanes. Frontage roads would also be added or rebuilt.

The segment would stretch from the Bush Turnpike in Dallas to FM2181 in Denton County.

But even to do this much of the project will take a new approach by the department and a rule change by the Texas Transportation Commission. It will take the agency about 12 months to select a private firm to do the work, Barton said.

The rule change is necessary because the state would seek to use a so-called pass-through toll agreement with a private company to build the 12-mile segment. The company would agree to build and finance the road in return for an upfront payment – usually a portion of its construction costs – plus guaranteed payments from future toll revenues.

If toll revenues are higher than expected, Texas would see a windfall, but if they are lower, it would still have to cover the promised payments to the firm.

Denton County Judge Mary Horn said she strongly favors the approach, because she believes the state has no other way to pay for the badly needed widening of Interstate 35E.

"Yes, I hear people objecting to the idea because it is a toll road, but I do not see this as a toll road," she said. "The traveling public will have a choice. For the anti-toll road people, if they feel that strongly about it, well bless their little hearts, there will be free lanes right beside the tolled lanes and they certainly won't have to use the toll lanes."

A similar hybrid approach to tolls – with rebuilt free lanes being joined by brand-new tolled lanes – will be used on LBJ Freeway in Dallas, which should begin construction early next year.

Hutchison accepts money from toll road builder, Zachry

Link to article here.

Kay Bailey Hutchison accepts campaign cash from toll-road builder

01:58 PM CST on Tuesday, January 26, 2010

By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News
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AUSTIN – Kay Bailey Hutchison has railed against the Trans-Texas Corridor, but she counts one of the state’s premiere toll-road builders among her major financial contributors.

Bartell Zachry, whose San Antonio-based construction company partnered with the Spanish company Cintra to develop the multi-billion transportation project, gave Hutchison $25,000, according to a campaign finance report filed with the state.

Hutchison campaign spokeswoman Jen Baker said the senator was happy to accept money from the toll-road builder, even though she has denounced the Trans-Texas Corridor as a land grab and has pledged to curb toll-road construction if she's elected governor.

"Clearly, Zachry agrees with 60 percent of primary voters that don't have any interest in four more years of Rick Perry," said Baker, referring to Perry's 39 percent share of the vote when he won re-election in 2006 in a four-way race.


Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner said Hutchison is being hypocritical.

"The senator criticizes the project, yet she has no hesitation taking money from the company building the project," Miner said.

Zachry has been one of Perry's major benefactors over the years, delivering more than $200,000 from officers and the company's political committee since Perry became governor in 2000.

A company spokeswoman said the construction executive has long supported both Hutchison and Perry in their separate races but had to choose between them in the GOP primary.

"Bartell has supported Sen. Hutchison since she first ran for the U.S. Senate," said Zachry Group spokeswoman Vicky Waddy. "He has a history of supporting her that probably as long as his history of supporting Gov. Perry. And he had a tough decision to make."

The Trans-Texas Corridor – which envisioned a network of highways, railroads and pipelines criss-crossing Texas -- was a major Perry initiative. But it faced strong public opposition and has been declared dead by state transportation officials.

In a campaign commercial, Hutchison warns voters that the only way to make sure the corridor is dead is to elect her governor. She would push the Legislature to revoke authority for development of the project. But in her larger transportation plans, Hutchison does not call for the elimination of new toll-road projects.

Such projects continue to be developed in several parts of the state, and Zachry remains involved in those projects.

Baker of the Hutchison campaign said the candidate remains committed to de-emphasizing toll roads.

"When she's elected, the days of the toll-road-only mentality and land grabs that give foreign companies the land so they can build toll roads and tax Texans is over," she said.

Zachry's two sons, John and David, head different parts of the family business. David contributed $10,000 to Perry, while John gave the same amount to Hutchison.

"It's really pretty rare for us to split," Waddy said. "But David believed that Gov. Perry has worked with him during the legislative sessions, and he believes that Gov. Perry should be able to continue to work he has started as governor of Texas."

Asked whether Bartell Zachry's support for Hutchison was in his own business interest, Waddy said the state will continue to need highways and the company can do it however the state chooses to build them.

"Whether they are built as toll roads, as free roads, as managed lanes, we are able to build them. So it may impact our business in that these projects don't happen as quickly as certainly the driving public would like. But regardless of the delivery method for the projects, we can still build them," she said.

She noted that others in the company have divided loyalties in the race.

General Counsel Murray Johnson has given $2,000 to Hutchison. And Vice President Cathy Obriotti Green is a statewide coordinator with the Hutchison campaign. Waddy has given $1,000 to Perry.

"There are longstanding personal relationships in play and everybody's doing what they think is the right thing to do," Waddy said. "And we hope whoever is elected, we'll be able to work with them."

Voters overwhelmingly REJECT privatized toll roads, 70% say it'll increase toll rates

Link to article here. Illinois voters are no different than Texans when it comes to economics. The voters surveyed inherently know that when a private company takes over a public toll road, the toll rates will go up if for no other reason than private companies have to make a profit. One man quoted below also noted how a private company is likely to cut corners to drive up profits thereby decreasing the level of maintenance. Texas politicians beware: Texans, too, don't want their roads privatized, and Texans don't want higher transportation costs/toll rates.

Privatize Illinois' tollways? Voters say no

January 25, 2010 9:00 PM | No Comments
Chicago Tribune/WGN

Politicians who hope to gain traction with voters by urging that the Illinois Tollway be leased to a private company might want to rethink their strategy.

By overwhelming numbers, Republican and Democratic voters alike oppose privatization of the tollway system and believe it would lead to higher tolls, according to a Tribune/WGN-TV poll.

The statewide poll of likely primary voters, conducted Jan. 16 to 20, shows Democrats opposing privatization 72 percent to 14 percent, with 13 percent undecided. Republicans oppose the idea 65 percent to 16 percent, with 19 percent undecided.

Why? Among Democrats, 71 percent say tolls are certain to increase if the tollway is leased to a private company; 68 percent of Republicans feel the same way.

The idea of leasing the tollway has been floated -- and shot down -- before, in Illinois and elsewhere. Several states are considering similar plans.

GOP gubernatorial contender Jim Ryan recently became the most prominent candidate to suggest the plan. The former Illinois attorney general noted that a long-term lease of the 286-mile system could generate billions of dollars to fund public works improvements across the state.

Ryan pointed to Indiana's lease of the Indiana Toll Road for $3.8 billion as a guide.

A consultant's report commissioned by the General Assembly in 2006 estimated Illinois could receive up to $23.8 billion by leasing the tollway system under a 75-year contract. The estimate assumed increases in tolls by 50 percent every 20 years.

These days, however, experts say a tollway lease would command far less because of the poor economy. The global credit crunch killed Chicago's proposed deal to lease Midway Airport for $2.5 billion last year.

Tollway officials had no comment on such a plan.

Critics say privatizing public assets amounts to a temporary fix. Many point to how Mayor Richard Daley's deal to lease the city's parking meters provided a one-time windfall but led to steep rate hikes, broken machines and unhappy users.

Frequent tollway user Alex Sidorowych, 56, of Lake Zurich, called tollway privatization a "bad idea."

"It's a taxpayers' asset, and I think it should stay with the state," said Sidorowych, a property manager who drives the tollways for business.

Motorist David Cromley, 52, a salesman from Sugar Grove, agreed: "There's no doubt private industry could run the system better ... based on the mismanagement in the public sector. But the private sector has to show a profit. I think prices would go up more, and maintenance would go down to a worse level."

Chicago leased the Chicago Skyway to a Euro-Australian consortium in 2004 for 99 years for $1.83 billion. Since then, the toll for cars on the 7.8-mile stretch has risen to $3 from $2.

The lease allows tolls to rise to $3.50 in 2011, $4 in 2013, $4.50 in 2015 and $5 in 2017.

A benefit of the skyway lease is it frees the city from having to maintain the toll bridge, while providing long-term funding, said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a non-partisan fiscal watchdog group.

But the parking meter lease turned into a fiasco because the deal was struck with no public scrutiny, he said.

The worst thing the state could do is use the proceeds from a tollway lease to relieve pressure on the state's operating budget, which faces a $12 billion deficit, Msall said.

State Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, D-Evanston, proposed leasing the tollway in 2006, but the idea was doused by suburban GOP legislators.

Schoenberg said he finds it "somewhat ironic if not amusing" that some Republican candidates for governor are now talking up the same idea.

"It's quite different from the harsh criticism many of them were lobbing my way a couple of years ago," he said. "Now they're more interested, and I'm more skeptical."

Schoenberg also disagrees with those like Ryan who would suggest using lease proceeds for roads or infrastructure. The most prudent path, Schoenberg said, is to use the funds to pay down the state's massive unfunded pension liability, estimated at $80 billion.

This past fall, the tollway wrapped up its $6.1 billion rebuilding and widening program. But the five years of construction have saddled the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority with $4 billion in debt that won't be paid off until 2034.

And state law requires toll revenues to be reinvested in the tollway, not channeled to other agencies or the state's general fund.

Keeping the system the way it is works just fine for Tammy Clayton, 46, of Harvey, a postal worker who commutes 100 miles a day on the tollway.

"I like the way things are now," Clayton said while on a dinner break at the Hinsdale Oasis on the Tri-State Tollway (I-294). "The tolls would probably go up extremely (with a lease). It would make things pretty difficult for me."

--Richard Wronski

Toll road lobby firm entangled in scandal, gives free rent to legislators

Link to Texas Watchdog's article here. Three members of the San Antonio delegation are included in this connection to the Hillco lobbying firm giving free office space to legislators while pending legislation pushed by Hillco was on the table. Hillco was the powerhouse hired by many local governments in DFW to push the local option gas tax bill that included an array of other tax hikes.

Despite the push, the bill didn't have the support to pass the House. Hillco has also been a longstanding lobby firm pushing Rick Perry's toll road policies in general and is a major roadblock to consumer protections and overall reform of transportation tax abuses. Its connection to pension funds is also a key element to financing the toll roads schemes. Perry, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, Senate Finance Chariman Steve Ogden, and former Speaker Tom Craddick pushed to get pension funds on the table to fund toll roads in the 2009 legislative session. So the explosive investigative report below does indeed involve toll roads.

Austin lobbying powerhouse HillCo Partners quietly gives free rent to legislators' group -- despite in-session ban on donations
Mon Jan 25 15:02:00 2010 CST
By Steve Miller
Texas Watchdog

One of the state's most powerful and connected lobbying firms has given thousands of dollars' worth of free office rent to the state Mexican American Legislative Caucus and its nonprofit foundation despite state laws that prohibit campaign contributions to lawmakers during the state legislative session.

These donations raise questions about a serious conflict of interest: Can lobbyists funnel money to a group of lawmakers during the few months when they are crafting and voting on bills that could benefit, or harm, those same lobbyists?

Bill Miller says the rent his firm, HillCo Partners, provided to the all-Democratic caucus -- and to the Mexican American Legislative Leadership Foundation that shares the office -- is legal under state ethics rules. State law bans legislative caucuses from accepting "direct or indirect transfer of money, goods, services, or any other thing of value" from nonmembers during the legislative session, but the state Ethics Commission may have created a narrow loophole in 1994 allowing for contributions of free office rent in some cases.

HillCo, whose client list this year includes AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, Continental Airlines and Microsoft, leases space in the historic Goodman Building, a former grocery store at 202 W. 13th St. in Austin, within spitting distance of the state capitol's pink granite dome.

HillCo has given free rent to the caucus and its foundation for two years now; the foundation has valued the rent payments at about $5,000 a month, for an annual contribution of about $60,000.

“We took the lease on the building. It’s close to the capitol. They are a big caucus, and they thought, ‘Well, it’s very convenient,'" said Miller, a veteran campaign consultant with ties to Gov. Rick Perry, former House Speaker Tom Craddick, among other key players. In an interview, Miller said the free rent was an in-kind donation, although it was not noted as such on the foundation's campaign finance forms dating back to 2007.
He cited a 1994 opinion from the Texas Ethics Commission that said a "legislator-elect" may accept "a political contribution in the form of office space" for use as a district office if the use will continue during the legislative session.

When pressed about HillCo’s relationship with the caucus beyond the gratis rent deal – including questions concerning any benefits it may have reaped from the generous gift of free rent to the caucus -- Miller declined to answer further questions, including questions about how long-serving members of the caucus might be considered legislators-elect.

“As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing else to discuss on the subject,” Miller said in an e-mail.

Calls and e-mails to the caucus and the foundation were unanswered.

Caucus chairman Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democratic state House member from San Antonio, did not return two e-mails. A representative from his office made contact with Texas Watchdog but failed to follow up.

HillCo: Plugged in and powerful

There are a lot of lobbying firms in Austin, but HillCo is one of the most plugged-in and powerful. Founded by Miller with former Democratic state House member Neal "Buddy" Jones, the firm's client list this year also includes General Motors and the pension systems for both Houston police officers and non-police municipal employees, among other big names. Another of its major clients, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, actually owns the Goodman Building, which is also home to the Cloak Room bar, the famed watering hole for legions of lawmakers and lobbyists (and the site where Sen. John Whitmire was alleged to have tried to get a bartender fired a few years ago for refusing to serve him when he was drunk).

Miller served on Craddick's transition team in 2002, and the PR firm he headed before launching HillCo included among its employees Anita Perry, wife of Gov. Rick Perry. The liberal watchdog group Texans for Public Justice has called HillCo's political action committee "a known pass-through for GOP super donor Bob Perry," naming the powerful homebuilder as one of the firm's most prominent clients.

For years, HillCo has also provided financial backing for Mexican American Legislative Caucus events and members. A recent example: In 2008 MALC caucus chair Fischer, received $12,950 in 2008 from HillCo related sources, including two donations of $2,500 from Neal Buddy Jones.

The caucus counts more than 40 members this year and constitutes more than a quarter of the Texas' legislature's 150-member lower chamber.

Along with corporate heavyweights including Anheuser-Busch, AT&T and Wal-Mart, HillCo is a sponsor of the caucus' foundation, which states its purpose as “fostering civic participation among Texas Latinos and educating the state's Hispanic communities on issues of particular consequence."

Do HillCo's payments violate the law?

Getting a definitive answer from the Ethics Commission about the legality of the HillCo rent donations to the caucus is difficult.

A 1997 opinion says it's illegal for a lawmaker to get free accounting services during session -- but it also suggests it's OK for a lawmaker to get free office rent, saying "a contribution of long-term use of real property" is different from receiving a service.

Tim Sorrells, the commission's deputy general counsel and spokesman, declined to specifically address the HillCo-MALC relationship -- the Ethics Commission staff says it is bound by state confidentiality laws that preclude it from speaking publicly about anything other than founded complaints. (In order for the Ethics Commission to actually take action on any issue, someone must first file a formal complaint.)

Texas Watchdog then posed a hypothetical question to Sorrells: If a lobbyist asked the commission whether it were legal to make a contribution of free rent to a legislative caucus, what would Sorrells tell them?

Sorrells said he would first refer the lobbyist to section 253.0341 of the state Election Code, which says that a legislative caucus may not knowingly accept contributions from nonmembers during the session-long moratorium period -- starting on the 30th day before regular session convenes and continuing through the last day.

 

Texas Watchdog spoke to seven prominent Texas lawyers and academics -- including in the group both Republicans and Democrats -- seeking comment on the propriety of both the actions of HillCo and the existing state law prohibiting campaign donations during legislative sessions. Six of them declined to speak on the record, citing policies at their respective organizations or a personal reservation.

The one who would speak on the record was Eric Opiela, a former general counsel for the state House of Representatives who recently stepped down as executive director of the Republican Party of Texas. "On its face, it appears a violation occurred," he said.

HillCo first shows up in public as paying rent for the foundation in August 2007.

That year, the foundation states on its IRS Form 990 tax filing that it paid $27,729 in rent. Campaign finance forms indicate that it paid that amount to HillCo, but HillCo reimbursed the money – via a contribution for the exact same amount, down to the penny.

On Feb. 6 of last year, the foundation sent a check for $5,041.66 to HillCo Partners for rent. Three days later, the foundation reported a contribution from HillCo Partners – for $5,041.66. The same thing happened each month from March through June, exact change passing in the mail, expenditure for rent duly noted, but the in-kind contribution box on the requisite finance reporting form was blank. The monthly contributions covered the duration of the legislature's regular session.

For reasons that were not immediately clear from the disclosure forms, for one month -- November 2007 -- the caucus, not the foundation, reported a payment of $5,041.66 to HillCo for rent, with no corresponding credit in the form of a contribution from HillCo. Instead, the exact same amount -- $5,041.66 -- was contributed to the foundation, which reported no rent payment for that month to HillCo.

In the two years that the foundation has reported the rent-for-donation exchange in its campaign finance forms, the box that denotes an in-kind contribution has never been marked.

Texas Watchdog Staff Writer Mark Lisheron contributed to this story.

Top donors to HillCo PAC, as of Jan. 1, 2010

A Texas Watchdog analysis of Texas Ethics Commission data

Bob Perry, prominent homebuilder and major GOP donor: $1.2 million
Stephen Jones, executive for the Dallas Cowboys and son of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, $295,500
Jerry Jones Jr., head of marketing for the Dallas Cowboys and son of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, $131,585
Neal T. "Buddy" Jones, co-founder and partner in HillCo, $119,500
Good Government PAC, Corpus Christi-based PAC tied to major Democratic donor Mikal Watts, $100,000
James "Mattress Mac" McIngvale, owner of Houston's Gallery Furniture stores, $75,000
Charles Butt, scion of the HEB grocery store family, $68,500
Dan Pearson, lobbyist for HillCo, $65,130
Marc Samuels, HillCo partner, $56,500
(Tie) Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner, and Paul Foster, head of Western Refining, both $55,000
Bill Miller, HillCo co-founder and partner, $52,500

Privatized toll road in South Carolina goes belly-up

Link to article here. The key buzz word for these taxpayer rip-offs is "innovative." It's important to note Rick Perry calls public private partnerships (PPPs) "innovative financing," too. His new name for the Trans Texas Corridor is "Innovative Connectivity Plan." The common theme is these things are being pushed by corporations who stand to profit handsomely off these deals (if the traffic materializes), so all the terminology is the same. Trust me, politicians aren't smart enough to come up with stuff on their own...

1/21/2010
South Carolina: Innovative Toll Road Goes Bust
Southern Connector toll road in Greenville County, South Carolina finds itself $169 million in the red.

Southern Connector toll roadThe first public-private partnership toll road established as a not-for-profit corporation has gone bust. The Connector 2000 Association, which operates a sixteen-mile, four-lane toll road linking Interstates 85 and 385 in southern Greenville County, South Carolina, announced last week that it was in default on its financial obligations.

"Traffic on the Southern Connector was inadequate to permit the association to collect sufficient toll revenues to pay debt service on the bonds which came due January 1, 2010," a Connector 2000 Association statement explained. "The association has been advised that the trustee has made no payment of any such debt service. An event of default currently exists... The association is actively negotiating the restructuring of its bonded indebtedness with the trustee, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT), and certain owners of large blocks of the bonds."

In 1998, the association floated $200,177,680 in tax-free bonds to fund construction of the toll road that opened in 2001. These bonds were to be repaid over thirty-five years with the proceeds from toll collections. Just a few years ago, SCDOT touted this project as a prime example of the department's "innovative financing successes."

"Without innovative financing, this southern loop around the city of Greenville would be nothing more than a dream," a SCDOT brochure boasted.

Like other highly-leveraged tolling efforts, the Connector was hampered by unrealistic traffic projections and rosy financial scenarios for an area expected to experience an economic boom.

"The expected growth in the region has yet to materialize," the toll road's 2008 annual report admitted. "This factor, the recession and consumer resistance to the payment of tolls (the Southern Connector Toll Road is the only toll road in Upstate South Carolina) have all contributed to the lower-than-forecasted traffic demands."

There is little hope for the road's recovery. In 2009, the association collected $3.9 million in tolls from motorists. Because SCDOT decided not to make the Connector a freeway, the majority of that revenue was swallowed by $2.8 million in expenses for things such as consultant fees, marketing, toll collection employees and legal fees -- most of which would not be required if operated as a free road. With such a constrained cash flow, the road could not come close to meeting its $13.1 million annual bond interest obligation. The toll road's bond payments had been insufficient since 2004, and now the association's net deficit stands at $169 million.

As a result, Standard and Poor's downgraded the toll road's bonds from C- to the lowest possible rating of D. A copy of the road's latest financial statement is available in a 600k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Briefing by the Connector 2000 Association (Connector 2000 Association, Inc., 1/11/2010)

Wasteful spending plagues use of federal highway dollars


Link to article here.  So where have our federal gas taxes been going? To restore historic courthouses, build tourists centers, rest areas with free wi-fi, millions in landscaping contracts, and airport museums! So this is the reason why Rick Perry won't listen to the people of Texas and end his toll road policies. Look at the last few lines of this story...Perry's commissioner says it all. They think transportation issues (the lifeblood of daily living) are not as radioactive as education issues or as disdained as nationalized healthcare, so obviously Perry thinks it won't hurt him at the ballot box. It's up to Texans to prove him WRONG!

It boggles the mind that this reporter taps the Texas Public Policy Foundation as the guardian of the taxpayer when they are the foremost state organization promoting the sale of our public infrastructure to foreign companies (using public private partnership toll road contracts called PPPs or CDAs) and guilty of using their resources as a shield for Rick Perry's anti-taxpayer, highly controversial and unwanted toll tax hikes. To pass off TPPF like it actually cares about the taxpayers is an insult!

Where was TPPF when TxDOT illegally spent $7-9 million on lobbying for PPPs, toll roads, and the Trans Texas Corridor? Where was TPPF when transportation taxes per mile went from 1-2 cents to 75 cents when Perry signed over LBJ and I-820 to Cintra using $1 BILLION in our gas taxes to subsidize the project while all the profits go to Spain? Where was TPPF when TxDOT gave the Alamo RMA $20 million in "management fees" to "supervise" an interchange project that TxDOT can do in-house? Where was TPPF when the cost to fix US 281 went from $100 million as a freeway project to $1.3 BILLION to turn this existing freeway already bought and paid for into a toll road? Oh, but TPPF is on the scene to fight any gas tax increase that could reduce the reliance on tolling and PPPs, which are the MOST expensive way to fund roads, presumably on behalf of its friends in the industry.


Hundreds of millions spent on Texas transportation projects that have little to do with traffic

Posted Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010

By GORDON DICKSON

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No one disputes that the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park under construction in downtown Dallas is innovative.

The 5-acre park is being built on top of an eyesore freeway. Soon, the concrete canyon of a roadway will be covered by an elevated green space where people can walk, ride bikes or play checkers.

But nearly all the money that’s being spent on the first phase of construction — $42.7 million — comes from federal transportation funds, supported largely by gasoline taxes that Americans pay at the pump.

The Woodall Rodgers project is a glaring example of how, at a time when many Texans distrust their transportation leaders, huge chunks of federal and state money are being spent on projects that have little or nothing to do with directly improving traffic.

"Texans should be outraged by it, especially when they’re being asked to support tax increases for transportation," said Justin Keener, vice president for policy and communications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a nonpartisan research institute in Austin.


The Star-Telegram reviewed 515 state projects awarded funds under the federal transportation enhancement program during the past 18 years and found projects large and small that had little to do with mobility.

One reason is that state legislators often require the Texas Department of Transportation to spend its enhancement dollars on pet projects by attaching last-minute "riders" to the department’s appropriation.

And federal officials require states to spend 10 percent of transportation funds on enhancement projects to gain access to the other 90 percent for actual road work.

"We didn’t ask for them. It’s a mandate," said Ted Houghton of El Paso, one of five members of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Transportation Department.

In Wichita Falls, a project to convert a rail depot to a visitors center was awarded $267,200 in federal funds, plus a $53,440 local match. The building now houses an insurance company.

In San Elizario, near El Paso, $96,000 in federal and local money was set aside to conduct and report on an archaeological dig.

In Fort Worth, a vintage Interurban trolley was restored at a cost of $211,200. The dapper red rail car, which is parked at 1001 Jones St., doesn’t ferry passengers on the city’s transit system but instead serves only as a static display, shielded by an iron fence from contact with the public.

Meanwhile, drivers in Dallas-Fort Worth, the nation’s fourth-most-congested metro area, are being asked to pay tolls on a growing number of roads and could face higher gas taxes in the coming years to make up for a shortfall of funds to expand highways.

Creating money pools

Texas faces a shortage of $332 billion through 2030 to meet the needs of its growing population, according to "Funding the Future," a report published in July based on research by the Texas Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations and experts at Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin.

Since the federal requirement began, $997 million worth of work in Texas has been identified as enhancement projects, including more than $410 million in projects for which the federal government has already provided reimbursement. At least $269 million more is in the process of being spent, according to a review of state and federal records.

It’s difficult to say how much $997 million would buy if it could be used on highway lane construction instead of enhancements.

It could be enough to pave over 330 miles of rural highways or to expand nearly 250 miles of four-lane interstate highway to six lanes, based on construction estimates from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. But those figures don’t include expenses such as land purchases.

In North Texas, an extra $997 million might make it unnecessary to include toll lanes or spend federal Recovery Act stimulus funds on a pair of multibillion-dollar projects: the DFW Connector and North Tarrant Express. Another way of looking at it: The $997 million would be enough to build eight miles of Southwest Parkway from Interstate 30 to Dirks Road — and make it a freeway instead of a toll road as planned.

The DFW Connector, the makeover of Texas 114/121 and other Grapevine highways, is scheduled to begin Feb. 15. The North Tarrant Express, which includes the reconstruction of Loop 820 and Airport Freeway in Northeast Tarrant County, could begin later this year.

"What if the roof of your house was leaking, pipes were breaking, and the government tells you that you have to spend money to buy a fancy piece of art on the wall?" Keener said. "When you’re looking at transportation funds going toward historic preservation, landscaping, it doesn’t have anything to do with improving traffic on highways."

During a Fort Worth visit late last year, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wouldn’t specify his plans for enhancement funds, but he said his agency is reviewing how money is distributed.

"We’re getting out of the sort of mode of business where highways get X amount and transit gets X amount," LaHood said. "We’re working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development so we can put transit lines where people really want to live. We’re going to try to create pools of money that really integrate with walking and biking trails with some of our highway money."

How we got here

Transportation enhancement funding dates to 1991, when Congress overhauled how highways are paid for.

At the time, states and major cities were under fire for making decades of shortsighted decisions about where to put roads, resulting in sprawling suburban areas stretching farther from the urban core. The problem was often compounded when lanes were added to monolithic highways as planners tried to keep up with population growth.

To promote a more holistic approach to transportation planning, Congress directed the states to spend 10 percent of their federal surface transportation funds on what are called transportation enhancements. The idea was to promote a mix of uses, including hike-and-bike trails, landscaping, historic preservation, and access to rail and mass transit. States were left to pick the projects themselves, build them according to federal guidelines and seek reimbursement from a federal fund that has made $9.5 billion available nationwide since 1991.

The 10 percent requirement for enhancements did not apply to all transportation funds. Congressional earmarks and maintenance funds, for example, were not figured into the ratio.

Politics as usual

As is often the case, politicians got involved in the project selection process for enhancement funds and began directing where to spend the money.

At the end of the 2009 legislative session, for example, lawmakers ordered the Texas Transportation Department to spend its enhancement funds on projects of dubious benefit to the state’s transportation system:

■ $16.1 million for the Battleship Texas restoration project in La Porte.

■ $2 million for a Houston fire museum.

■ $455,000 for beautification of the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

■ $150,000 on a Lufkin tourist center.

Even more enhancement funds will likely become available when Congress reauthorizes funding. A vote on that bill, which could total $500 billion over five or six years — a 38 percent increase from the last authorization, in 2005 — may come later this year.

Enhancement funds, like earmarks, have become a way for federal and state elected officials to prove to constituents that they can bring home the bacon, critics say.

About $20.4 million has been spent renovating 21 county courthouses in Texas, including $3.6 million for the Hill County Courthouse, which was gutted by fire in 1993.

It’s up to lawmakers working on the state Transportation Department’s two-year budget to determine whether such projects are an appropriate use of transportation funds, said Steven Polunsky, director of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee. Some projects are added during open meetings, while others are tacked on in the final hours of a legislative session as lawmakers scramble to gain approval for projects they support.

And add $9 million or so more in gas-tax-supported funds for projects benefiting those who prefer to travel in the sky — $8.7 million for the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field and $138,000 for the Hangar 25 Air Museum in Big Spring.

Defending Woodall Rodgers

In Tarrant County, more than $35 million was awarded to hike-and-bike-trail projects in Arlington, Colleyville, Euless, Fort Worth, Grapevine, Keller, North Richland Hills and even Burleson near the Tarrant-Johnson county border.

In North Richland Hills, $2 million was awarded in 1999 to the Walker’s Creek Park trail project, which included installing lockers under a large canopy near the city’s water park, for bicycle commuters to stow their belongings. But a few months ago, the lockers were removed, and now they’re sitting in a storage facility, said Bill Thornton, assistant parks and recreation director.

"We were concerned that you couldn’t see inside, and you could have someone stuck in a locker," he said, adding that the city intends to retrofit the lockers with safer doors and locks and put them back out on the trail.

In Arlington, $102,479 was awarded in 1994 for median landscaping on Six Flags Drive, just outside the theme park entrance.

Supporters of the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park note that plenty of other funds are committed to the project beyond the $42.7 million in enhancements used to finish the first phase by 2012. Besides the original $25 million in traditional enhancements committed to the project since 2007, the federal government chipped in $16.7 million in Recovery Act stimulus funds last year to get the shovels turning. And $40 million more in private and local contributions are expected to cover the costs of phase two.

"That’s big bang for the buck, and it’s transportation-related," said Amanda Wilson, spokeswoman for the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

In North Texas, the emphasis is on using transportation funds for trails and access to rail, officials said. In rural parts of the state, more than $172 million has been spent to overhaul 23 highway rest areas.

Houghton, from the Texas Transportation Commission, foresees a day when federal transit money is awarded to states in block grants, not reimbursements, to be spent as states see fit within federal guidelines.

But he isn’t convinced a change like that will happen soon. "It’s not sexy enough for the electorate to say, 'Stop!’ It’s not education. It’s not healthcare," Houghton said.

Austin’s I-35 ranks 4th most congested freeway in U.S.

Link to article here.

The way this report was compiled has some flaws...they selected a congested roadway in major U.S. cities and then ranked the entire city based on its single most congested corridor. But it is useful in illustrating the persistent troubles with I-35 through Austin. The SH 130 tollway was built to supposedly relieve I-35 traffic and to get trucks off I-35. It's a total flop!

We're all still sitting in gridlock on I-35. Why? Because few can afford to use the tollway. The SH 130 toll road is so empty during rush hour a distressed plane used it as a runway! SH 130 is heavily subsidized with heaps of taxpayer money by those who don't even drive on it. If they really want to relieve I-35 traffic, make SH 130 a FREE road that truckers and motorists alike can afford to take, and we would likely see appreciable relief on I-35. Tolling alternative roadways is a BIG LOSER in actually solving traffic congestion woes! They amount to roads for the wealthy, not the general public, yet it's still using the taxpayers' dime.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010, 11:14am CST  |  Modified: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 12:00am

Austin ranked 4th worst traffic in U.S.

Austin Business Journal

Austin's I-35 corridor has the fourth worst peak-hour congestion in the United States, according to research from INRIX and The Daily Beast today.

The traffic research companies based the rankings on peak road travel time compared with during free-flow hours, and the report identified roadways with the longest hours of bottleneck congestion.

The report found on average I-35 drivers encounter 460 hours of bottleneck traffic a week. The worst congestion heads northbound for about a mile near Riverside Drive and at its slowest hits about 16 mph.

Houston's Loop 610 was ranked 12th worst traffic with an average 189 hours of congestion a week and Loop 820 in Dallas clocked in 172 hours and was listed 15th. San Antonio came in much lower on the list with just 71 hours of traffic a week on Loop 410.

The Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles topped the list, followed by the Lunalilo Freeway of Honolulu. The Capital Beltway came in third and U.S. 101 in San Francisco fell behind Austin. Seattle; Bridgeport, Conn; Chicago, Ill.; and Miami also made the top 10 list.

The complete list of 75 cities is available here.

Farouk Shami proposes transportation overhaul without tolls, privatization


Farouk Shami Proposes Overhaul in Transportation Policy

Texas Insider - January 20, 2010, On The Record

We must stop the Trans Texas Corridor and Eminent Domain Abuses

HOUSTON- Farouk Shami released his campaign’s policy on transportation issues Thursday. Transportation issues are one the greatest challenges facing the State of Texas. Every hour spent stuck in traffic is an hour of time robbed from Texans.More...

“Governor Perry has continually misled our state on this issue and doesn’t even address the critical issues of transportation in the state,” Shami said as he released the policy. He released his plan complete with a funding mechanism for the overhaul of the Texas Department of Transportation.

Farouk’s plan to get Texas moving includes:

Reform the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Transportation Commission with elected positions and bans on lobbying the Legislature for pet projects.

Change TXDOT’s focus to concentrate on repair and replacement with a focus on immediate needs for deficient bridges and overpasses.

Focus on mass transit and securing funding for plans to reduce traffic congestion.

Repeal HB3588 and kill the Trans Texas Corridor.

NO NEW TOLL PROJECTS

With the comprehensive attention paid to overhauling the transportation agencies in Texas, Farouk also released a position on how to pay for these new ideas. He is the only candidate offering up ways to pay for road projects other than through privatization or toll roads.

Farouk Shami proposed a one time increase in the gas tax of 8 cents and implementing automatic increases in the gas tax annually from 2012 forward based on increases in the Highway Cost Index. He also proposes to give the commission the authority to issue bonds backed by the gas tax.

Shami also believes these measures will encourage the use of electric and natural gas powered automobiles that would be exempt from the gas tax. “This will encourage people to buy cars powered by these technologies, which will help clean up Texas’ air and bring us into compliance with federal standards while also decreasing our dependence on foreign oil,” Shami said.

URL to article: http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=20755

Carona: 10 cent gas tax increase would meet all needs without tolls Carona: 10 cent gas tax increase would meet all needs without tolls

Link to article here.

Key quotes from Senate Transportation Committee Chairman John Carona from the story below:

Carona said a 20-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax approved 19 years ago no longer covers Texas transportation requirements. The state senator said he believes Texas has resorted to too many toll roads, which he claims cost citizens more in the long run.

"It's not a good public policy," he said. "I would argue continued advancement toward more toll roads is bad for Texas."

Carona said raising the gas tax by 10 cents per gallon could pay for all the unfunded transportation needs, but Carona has found that option has found that option extremely unpopular among state lawmakers.

Mileage Meters? Texans Could Get Taxed By the Mile
By Ken Kalthoff
NBCDFW.com
Fri., Jan. 15, 2010

A tax on the miles you drive could be a way to pay for Texas roads in the future.

Texas transportation planners are studying the idea of a “mileage meter” to help raise money.

Cars built after 1999 have a computer port that can access many types of data about the vehicle.

Progressive Insurance already offers a device that connects to that port for pay as you go rates.

“Mileage does have a lot to do with it,” said Mike Leonard, a Progressive insurance agent in Carrollton. “The less the miles, the less exposure Progressive has. So therefore, they’re willing to give you a discount on your rates.”

The Texas Department of Transportation is investigating whether such a device might also be used to tax drivers for how much they use roads.

“I’m not ready to embrace that technology, but it is a technology we may have to look at,” said State Sen. John Carona, of Dallas, a Republican.

Carona said Texas has an estimated $100 billion worth of unfunded transportation needs.

“The money simply does not exist, and if people are being honest with constituents, they come out and just tell them that," he said. "We don’t have the money in Austin, and there isn’t the ability locally to raise this money to be able to solve these problems.”

Carona said a 20-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax approved 19 years ago no longer covers Texas transportation requirements. The state senator said he believes Texas has resorted to too many toll roads, which he claims cost citizens more in the long run.

“It’s not a good public policy," he said. "I would argue continued advancement toward more toll roads is bad for Texas.”

Another pay-as-you-go plan might require drivers to electronically record their mileage at the gas pump, which is already required by for some private company cars.

Carona said raising the gas tax by 10 cents per gallon could pay for all the unfunded transportation needs, but Carona has found that option has found that option extremely unpopular among state lawmakers.

One way or another, all of the options require citizens to pay more to solve Texas transportation needs.

“We are substantially behind the times in dealing with this,” Carona said. “We’re going to face substantially greater congestion and air quality issues.”

Texans battle privatization of Texas roads

Link to article here.

Elite’s Toll Road Scheme
The Big Picture/with Mark Anderson,American Free Press deputy editor, www.AmericanFreePress.net; and host of RBN’s When Worlds Collide, broadcast Saturdays from 7 to 9 p.m. Central; Call in, 800-313-9443.

Posted: January 15, 2010

Outraged Texans are coming out swinging in early 2010, continuing the brutal fight against the outright privatization of public highways — trying to avoid getting steamrolled by Wall Street “highwaymen” and their political allies who would deprive Texans and all Americans of the ownership and cost-effective use of highways already paid for with gasoline taxes.

Watching a state like Texas tells a great deal about what could happen anywhere. So, AMERICAN FREE PRESS has been monitoring the Texas situation for more than three years, as the drama plays out on whether the Trans-Texas Corridor – a pivotal piece of the proposed NAFTA Superhighway system for engineering the physical aspects of the North American Union scheme – will be built to any irreversible extent; and whether existing freeways will be converted to toll ways in a privatization scheme to cancel any competition that freeways would pose to aggressive plans to toll any highway with enough traffic for manipulators to make money.

These financial sharks tempt the cash-strapped states with quick money by acquiring freeways from them and transforming them into for-profit toll ways. Or sometimes state-controlled toll ways are privatized under long lease agreements, as happened with the Indiana Toll Road. Tolls of 75 cents a mile are a distinct possibility in places such as Dallas-Fort Worth, an area whose destiny appears to be the U.S. “toll” capital.

The usual suspects will leave no road un-tolled here — and abroad — if we let them get their way. Yes, Goldman-Sachs is creating a “highway market” to control. Meanwhile, the Rothschilds are reportedly among the major financial forces privatizing the roads in Britain.

The domestic scene’s latest developments included a Jan. 11 final public hearing in Texas on a plan to charge tolls on the northbound lanes in San Antonio’s large 281/1604 Interchange. San Antonio Toll Party (SATP) members turned out to protest the plan.

Their main concerns were noted in a news bulletin:

“They’re charging us the price of a whole interchange ($143 million), but we’re only getting half ….Each set of ramps costs roughly $59 million, yet the [Regional Mobility Authority] is putting this project out to bid with $84 million in ‘project enhancements’ in order to use-up all our stimulus money on anything but fixing 281 North or building the whole interchange toll-free.”

From there, the SATP meets Jan. 21 at the Big ’Z Burger Joint in San Antonio at 2303 North 1604 W — mainly to prepare for a major hearing of the Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 1 in the capital of Austin.  AFP plans to attend.

SATP’s news bulletin on the hearing notes: “Our attention turns to accountability at the ballot box, producing our Voter Guide, preparing for a big grassroots turnout at [the] hearing in Austin on Feb 1 …. Come be a part of preserving our freedom to travel.”

Those in AFP’s growing Texas readership take note: This Austin meeting, to take place at 8 a.m. at the Capitol Extension Auditorium, will focus on statewide road funding alternatives.

“If you want to end tolling as the primary means to fund new roads and for the most affordable method of funding roads to prevail [the common use of gas taxes for maintenance, repairs and needed expansions] you must come to Austin … to be heard,” the SATP also announced. “That means telling lawmakers ‘no’ to selling our roads to private, foreign corporations [Spanish firms under Comprehensive Development Agreements]; ‘no’ to raiding teacher retirement funds and public employee retirement funds to finance them; ‘no’ to any tax increases until they clean house at TxDOT; and stop raiding the gas tax for things that don’t relate to roads; and ‘yes’ to the most affordable way to fund roads (the statewide gas tax that hasn’t been raised since 1991).”

To give an idea of what these toll schemes mean to the average motorist no matter where they’re enacted, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Dec. 27 noted:  “Tolls could go as high as 75 cents per mile when congestion is at its worst. That could be more than five times higher than the average 14.5 cents per mile that motorists currently pay on Dallas-area toll roads.”

It’s a concept called “value pricing” in which the “value” all goes one direction — into the fat cats’ pockets.

Building a toll road that you are forced to use has the same effect as paying a higher tax on gasoline. Whether a highway is free, or you are tolled, you still pay 38.4 cents in federal and state gasoline taxes. That is the baseline. Assuming that your vehicle averages 20 miles per gallon, if you drive 20 miles on a toll road charging the maximum 75 cents per mile, you pay your 38.4 cents in current gas taxes plus another $15 in tolls. Thus, the combined tolls and taxes to drive on that road total $15.38 per gallon of gasoline. And to think Americans griped when gas was $4 a gallon.

Yet, the ultimate problem is that more toll ways in any state will create a vast “highway market” [read: racket] by privatizing all major public roads so the NAFTA Superhighway, in Texas and beyond, can be waiting in the wings as a major blow against territorial sovereignty. It also is a surefire way to further impoverish the masses who already had what should be a publicly-controlled asset – the creation of money itself – taken away from them starting in 1913 when the Federal Reserve was born.

Now, roads – which, like money, are used by nearly everybody on a daily basis – may be the final frontier for the elite monopolists whose tentacles pull at the grassroots and span the globe.

Toll authority lobbies to end citizen legal challenges to unwanted toll roads

This excerpt from the story pretty well sums up our thoughts on this obvious attempt to railroad UNWANTED toll projects upon taxpayers by removing genuine legal challenges, the only method they listen to and the only method that has worked so far:

“There's a reason why they have public comment and review periods,” Hall said. “It is important to give the public a chance to review these things and scrutinize it.”

Some environmental documents are hundreds or thousands of pages long, Hall said, and can't be digested in 60 days.

“The best way to not have to worry about litigation is not about keeping things out of court — it's to do the documents right, do right by the public and get community consensus so that there isn't any opposition.”

Web Posted: 01/14/2010 6:25 CST

Proposal would sideline road-blocking lawsuits

By Josh Baugh - Express-News
Alamo Regional Mobility Authority board member Robert Thompson on Thursday called for a change in federal law that would effectively stop lawsuits that block road projects.

In San Antonio, it would mean swift action in suits filed against toll projects.

Thompson, a lawyer, said he planned to e-mail Bexar County's congressional delegation after Thursday's meeting of the agency to seek support for adding such language to federal transportation legislation that Congress is considering. Thompson called lawsuits filed to block highway construction “the bane of so many projects.”

Currently, federal law offers a 180-day window for lawsuits to be filed once an environmental study is approved by the Federal Highway Administration. Thompson's proposal would cut that to 60 days and require plaintiffs to accept binding arbitration. Resolution would be required within 180 days, Thompson said.

Read the rest of the article here.

Perry hammered over toll roads in first gubernatorial debate

Vote in our poll (at the bottom right side of the home page) and tell us who YOU think won the debate.


In the first Texas Republican gubernatorial debate last night, Rick Perry self-destructed. He took a beating from his two opponents and was completely unprepared for meaningful policy discussion. He showed NO VISION for what he plans to do for the next 4 years and simply repeated what one viewer called a "recorded message" that "Texas is great" about 2 dozen times, acting more like a yell leader than an experienced policy maker.

When your opponents point out multiple failings of your administration as well as one's untruthfulness, like the number of jobs lost on Perry's watch and proving his claim of cutting taxes and spending were false, he gave no answers other than Texas is great.
Both Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina slammed Perry for his mismanagement of TxDOT, particularly its $1.1 billion "accounting error" for which no one was fired, the Trans Texas Corridor, and his veto of the strongest eminent domain bill to pass the legislature.

But Hutchison made transportation and Perry's push for unwanted toll roads front and center and right off the bat said one of the federal programs she'd pull Texas out of is the federal highway program that has shorted Texas it's fair share habitually since its inception. Hutchison brought Texas up from getting back 76 cents of every gas tax dollar sent to D.C. to 92 cents, but she says that's still not enough.

She emphasized that she doesn't want tolls all over Texas in her closing statement. Though her transportation plan released a few weeks ago would reduce the number of toll roads hitting Texas, make strides in reforming TxDOT, and would require a public vote on toll projects, she still supports managed lane projects that toll portions of existing right of way (though not tolling existing lanes) as well as controversial public private partnerships that sell our Texas highways to foreign companies. Two areas that make her vulnerable to Medina, who many at a debate watching event in San Antonio feel ran away with the debate and demonstrated she's a force to be reckoned with.

The real self-destruct moments came when Perry couldn't make a cogent defense of his veto of the eminent domain bill and when he claimed ignorance to a controversial end of life bill that passed while he presided over the senate that mandates medical personal pull the plug on patients who are still conscious and whose families still want to pay for care. The audience member who asked the question said it's the worst advanced directive/end of life law in the country. Perry's strongest supporters to date have been from the pro-life community, and Perry not only allowed the bill to come through the senate when he as the senate's presiding officer had the power to stop it, he failed to repeal or address it in 9 years as Governor. This could really hurt Perry with his base.

Voices raised during 3-way GOP debate
By R.G. Ratcliffe and Peggy Fikac - Express-News
Web Posted: 01/14/2010

DENTON – Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison clashed repeatedly in the first Republican gubernatorial debate, speaking over one another and all but calling the other a liar.

Activist Debra Medina pushed for a place apart, describing Perry and Hutchison as politicians who embrace big government solutions to Texas' problems.

After one overlapping exchange of sniping between Hutchison and Perry, Medina expressed frustration, declaring, “This squabbling isn't getting us anywhere.”

The debate was a key encounter between the candidates leading to the March 2 primary. Only one other debate currently is scheduled for the Republicans.

Perry as the incumbent was the candidate to beat going into the debate, and he repeatedly showed he was willing to take the contest to his two challengers. Hutchison and Medina would not let him back them down.

Hutchison went after Perry's veracity time and again, while Perry painted Hutchison as out of touch from her years in Washington.

Read the rest of the story here.

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